Indian security forces fired on protesters opposing New Delhi’s repressive rule in Kashmir, killing eight persons as by-election in the disputed territory on Sunday had the lowest turnout in the last 30 years.
Fearing that the killings in Budgam near the Indian controlled Kashmir capital, Srinagar, threaten to spiral protests out of control, New Delhi has imposed restrictions on the movement of people across Jammu and Kashmir through curfew.
On the bloody election day on Sunday, thousands of protesters charged into polling stations set up for by-elections in the Budgam district as all the Kashmiri groups struggling for freedom from Indian rule had given a call for the boycott of polls.
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference – a group of Kashmiri parties demanding freedom for the oppressed people of Jammu and Kashmir, has called the latest killings a part of the “continuing plan of Muslims genocide.”
Kashmir – which is partly under Indian and Pakistani control with a Line of Control dividing the UN-recognized disputed territory – has been on knife-edge since last summer with its predominantly Muslim population pitched against more than 500,000 Indian security forces in one of the world’s heavily militarized regions.
Political parties, the Kashmiri civilians the in Indian-administered Kashmir have for decades called for either independence or a union with Pakistan. They do not accept local elections. The 2016 summer widespread spontaneous demonstration by the young Kashmirs.
In the face of violence – stone-pelting by protesters and firing and tear gas shelling by Indian police – polling was suspended on Sunday in some places, while voters generally stayed away. Election officials reported an estimated voter turnout of just 6.5%. Another by-election, to fill a separate parliamentary seat, is scheduled in Anantnag district for April 12. The results are expected to be out on April 15.
Meanwhile, there seems to be no ratcheting down in India-Pakistan tensions boiling since last year.
Islamabad has strongly condemned the latest killings in Kashmir with the government’s top adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz seeking the international community’s support for an immediate end to the ongoing bloodbath in Kashmir – the underlying cause of the South Asian conflict.
